Why I Shoot

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been able to get lost in photos. At the homes of family and friends, I would scour through pages and pages of old photo albums, even though they were mostly filled people I had never met. I admired my Great Aunt Rita who covered every single inch of her home in pictures of her loved ones. I would sit on her stairs, looking at each framed photo step by step, as I worked my little self from the first floor to the second. And when Facebook was invented, it felt like Mark Zuckerberg was speaking directly to my soul when he made my favorite pastime so easy to do. But it wasn’t until I was in front of the lens that my whole world changed. It wasn’t until after a photographer I had hired for my weddingsent me the photographs she made that truly captured the most meaningful and important day of my life. She perfectly documented a day that was filled with the people I love, some who I will never see again, and if I could literally reach through my computer screen and hug every picture she took, I would. To her, she was simply doing her job, but to me, she gave me some something that was priceless: memories of a special day and the passion to do the same for someone else.